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Female fans normally know more facts about what’s going on than men do anyway. I’d say they’re a more intelligent fan on top of that. They normally know more about what we’ve done than we know about what we’ve done. --- Tony Stewart

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There are female fans who take apart engines and will take you apart if you have a problem with that; who are drawn to the danger and mystery of the sport; who watch races on TV to witness pure passion and unscripted emotion; who love the camaraderie of these family-friendly festivals; who feel the nervous anxiety of the lip-biting wives atop the pit boxes. --- Andrew Giangola “The Weekend Starts on Wednesday”

In Memory

In memory of our friend and colleague Amy Branch

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 28 DHL/Sundrop sponsored IndyCar for Andretti Autosport in the IZOD IndyCar Series, was the winner of the recent race at the Milwaukee Mile on June 16, and also has three other IndyCar Series wins on his resume. Find out what else is on Hunter-Reay’s resume in this week’s Fast Facts.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was born December 17, 1980 in Dallas, Texas. In the 1990s, Hutner-Reay won six national karting championships, graduating to the Skip Barber Formula Dodge Series after winning the Skip Barber Karting Scholarship; he won the Skip Barber Formula Dodge National Championship in 1999.

Hunter-Reay spent 2000 and 2001 in the Barber Dodge Pro Series, winning Rookie of the Year in 2000, then spent 2002 in the Toyota Atlantic Series. He spent the next three years in the CART (2003) and Champ Car World Series (2004 and 2005) ranks, and is currently the only driver to win in North America’s top three open wheel classes – CART, Champ Car and IndyCar; he also has wins in the American Le Mans Series and the GRAND-AM Series.

After spending 2006 in the A1 Grand Prix Series, Hunter-Reay made his IndyCar Series debut in 2007, winning the series’ Rookie of the Year title in spite of only running six races. Since he hadn’t attempted to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 in 2007, he was eligible for the race’s Rookie of the Year award in 2008, which he won with a sixth-place finish. A few weeks later, he won his first IndyCar race at Watkins Glen International. After stints with Rahal Letterman Racing, Vision Racing and A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Hunter-Reay signed with Andretti in 2010.

Hunter-Reay’s number, 28, is in reference to the estimated 28 million people around the world who live with cancer; he lost his mother to colon cancer in 2009. Hunter-Reay is part of Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG foundation, and is the ambassador for "Racing for Cancer," founded in 2010 to build awareness for the fight against cancer.